Upayadhi
About the Teacher
Why study with them?
Professionally, her background is in leadership development, executive education and coaching. Following the wake-up call of the 2016 elections, Upayadhi entered Union Theological Seminary in New York, where, as a seminarian, she studied Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement. Now a doctoral student in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago, her scholarship has focused on the 20th-century Dalit leader Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and his radical Buddhist imagination, which she places in conversation with Womanist and Black liberation theologies.
Upayadhi co-founded Awareness is Revolutionary, a collective of Buddhists committing to cultivating Beloved Community and accelerating racial literacy within a Dharmic framework. With Jon Aaron, she co-founded Space2Meditate, which offers online meditation sessions six days a week; initially launched in response to the pandemic, it is still going strong.
Upayadhi also teaches in secular contexts as a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher, and has practiced as an interfaith chaplain in healthcare settings.